Expressive Culture: Film Class Code CORE-UA 9750 – 001 Instructor Dr Anne Barnes Details [email protected] Consultations by appointment. Please allow at least 24 hours for your instructor to respond to your emails. Class Details Spring 2016 Expressive Culture: Film Monday 3:00 – 7:00pm (4 hours per week including film screening) February 1 to May 9 Room 302 NYU Sydney Academic Centre 157-161 Gloucester St, The Rocks 2000 Prerequisites None Class How has Australian cinema engaged with significant and often contested historical, political Description and cultural events in the nation’s past? The films in this course offer critical perspectives on the history of colonisation in Australia; the legacies of the Stolen Generations; the controversies surrounding Australia’s role in World War One; as well as Australia’s relationships with its Pacific Asian neighbours. We will focus on films that have marked significant shifts in public consciousness about the past such as Gallipoli (1981), Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) and Balibo (2009). We will also draw on films that have employed innovative narrative and aesthetic strategies for exploring the relationship between the past and the present such as Ten Canoes (2006) and The Tracker (2002). Throughout the course, students will develop their understanding of the basic methods and concepts of cinema studies. In particular, students will develop a critical vocabulary for analysing how filmmakers have approached the use of memory, testimony, re-enactment, researched detail, allegory and archives across a diverse range of examples. Desired By the end of the course students will be able to: Outcomes • Apply the basic vocabulary of film form. • Grasp the mechanics of structuring a written argument about a film’s meaning. Page 1 of 13 Expressive Culture: Film • Engage with different approaches to thinking and writing about cinema and film. • Reflect upon their viewing position and their application of interpretive strategies to films from diverse historical and cultural contexts. • Utilize a critical vocabulary for analysing representations of the relationship between the past and the present on film. • Critically analyse the ways that representations of the past shape and are shaped by their historical, political and cultural contexts. • Research and investigate aspects of the Australian cinema and communicate their findings in a coherent, well-structured written form. • Situate contemporary Australian cinema in its national, regional and international contexts. Assessment Class Participation: (10%) Assessed throughout the semester. Components Sequence Analysis: 4-6 pages (20%) Due in class Week 6. Critical Paper: 4-6 pages (20%) Due in class Week 11. Proposal for Final Paper: 2-3 pages (10%) Due in class Week 13. Final Paper: 10-12 pages (40%) Due in class Week 15. Class Participation Students are required to demonstrate accountability and responsibility in their preparation for, and engagement with, the course. Students are expected to engage in active discussion and to listen to and respect other points of view. Students will receive a midterm participation grade, worth half of you total participation grade, after the first seven weeks of classes. Sequence Analysis (Week 6) Students will identify a sequence from a film presented in the first six weeks of the course and critically analyse how the sequence reflects key themes, issues, concepts and/or aesthetic strategies introduced in Weeks 1 - 6. Students will pay close attention to the formal (stylistic and technical) qualities of the sequence, demonstrating their understanding of the specificities of film form, style and narration. Critical Paper (Week 11) Students will select two readings from the selection provided by the instructor and write a short critical essay in which they identify and analyze the key arguments, ideas, concepts and issues raised by the authors. Students will compare the arguments of the different authors and offer their own assessment of the authors’ claims and conclusions. The paper should be written in an appropriate academic style with consistent scholarly referencing and bibliography. This assignment will help to develop students’ critical reading, thinking and writing skills, essential for the final paper in this course. Proposal for Final Paper (Week 13) Students will submit a proposal indicating how they intend to approach their chosen question. Page 2 of 13 Expressive Culture: Film Final Paper (Week 15) Questions for the final papers will be released in Week 11. Students are required to apply their analysis to specific, carefully selected case studies and film examples and to demonstrate their critical thinking, analysis and evaluation skills. Students are expected to situate their argument in relation to the relevant required readings and undertake additional research and reading on their topic. Failure to submit or fulfill any required course component will result in failure of the class. Assessment The College Core Curriculum is designed to provide students with an intellectually rigorous Expectations general education in the liberal arts. Because Core courses seek to stretch you beyond your previous schooling and major course of study, they will likely be among the most academically challenging experiences you undertake as an undergraduate. The following guidelines outline our common expectations concerning the evaluation of students’ work across the curriculum. The grade of A marks extraordinary academic performance in all aspects of a course and is reserved for clearly superior work. As a faculty, we are similarly concerned to reserve the mark of B+ to signify very good work. It is our hope and desire that the majority of students will want and be able to do good work in their Core classes, work in the B range. Because these courses are intended by design to foster your intellectual development, the difference between merely satisfactory and good work will frequently depend on outstanding effort and class participation. For this reason, class participation is typically a substantial component of the overall grade in Core courses. The grade of C denotes satisfactory work—regular attendance, ordinary effort, a minimum of demonstrated improvement across the semester. It is expected that every student is capable of and motivated to perform at least at this level. Grades below C are reserved for less than satisfactory and, in the D range, for poor work and effort, and mark a need for improvement. The grade of F indicates failure to complete the requirements for a course in a creditable manner. It marks a judgment about the quality and quantity of a student’s work and participation—not about the student—and is therefore in order whenever a student fails to complete course requirements, whatever his or her intentions or circumstances may be. The temporary mark of I (Incomplete) is given only when sudden and incapacitating illness, or other grave emergency, prevents a student from completing the final assignment or examination for a course. It must be requested by the student in advance; all other course requirements, including satisfactory attendance, must have been fulfilled; and there must be a reasonable expectation that the student will receive a passing grade when the delayed work is completed. Students must make arrangements with the faculty member to finish the incomplete work as soon as circumstances permit within the following semester. If not completed, marks of I will lapse to F. Page 3 of 13 Expressive Culture: Film Grade This course uses the following scale of numerical equivalents to letter grades: Conversion A = 94-100 C+ = 77-79 A- = 90-93 C = 74-76 C- = 70-73 B+ = 87-89 B = 84-86 D+ = 67-69 B- = 80-83 D = 65-66 F = below 65 Submission of Should work be submitted as a hard copy, or electronically? Work Unless otherwise specified, all written work must be submitted as a hard copy. The majority of written assignments must also be submitted electronically via NYU Classes. All in-class presentations must be completed during class time. Who may submit a student’s work? Each student’s assigned work must be handed in personally by that student. The student may not nominate another person to act on his/her behalf. When and where should the work be submitted? The hard copy of any written work must be submitted to the instructor at the beginning of class on the date the work is due. If the assignment due date falls outside of class time, work must be submitted to the Staff Member on duty in Room 2.04 during prescribed Office Hours (11:30am-12:30pm and 2:30-3:30pm Mon-Thu), or by appointment with the Academic Programs Coordinator. Each submitted item of work received in Room 2.04 will be date and time stamped in the presence of the student. Work submitted in Room 2.04 will not be considered “received” unless formally stamped. What is the Process for Late Submission of Work? After the due date, work may only be submitted under the following conditions: • Late work, even if an extension has been granted, must be submitted in person by appointment with the Academic Programs Coordinator. Each submitted item of work must be date and time stamped in order to be considered “received”. • Work submitted after the submission time without an agreed extension receives a penalty of 2 points on the 100-point scale (for the assignment) for each day the work is late. Written work submitted beyond five weekdays after the submission date without an agreed extension receives a mark of zero, and the student is not entitled to feedback for that piece of work. • Because failure to submit or fulfil any required course component will result in failure of the course, it is crucial for students to submit every assignment even when it will receive a mark of zero. Early departure from the program therefore places the student at risk of failing the course.